In one of James Bond Thriller, Diamond is Forever; nothing last like a diamond. In sharp contrast, this cannot be said to be true for a website. Back in the ‘90s and early 2000s, owing a website for a company website was phenomenal and considered ahead of its time.
In the current dynamic market, a mere website is never enough. The technological advancements call for well-designed, easily navigable and interactive website that exceeds the expectations of the customers and the business in equal measures. This is the only way to remain competitive in the 20th century.
According to research done by Stanford University, 75% of people judge the reliability of a company based on the design of its website. The perception has significant influence and before I forget, have I mentioned that website technology is evolving at incredible speeds?

Here are 10 clear Signs it’s Time to update your corporate website.

1. AN OUTDATED WEBSITE DESIGN MIGHT BE SENDING AWAY POTENTIAL CLIENTS

Recently there was a trending post on a popular social media website where the users expressed their concern about discomfort purchasing from a certain website because of its poor design. To them, the poor design created the impression the enterprise closed down.
Let’s give a hypothetical case for clarity, if a poorly designed website has the potential to chase away a potential customer a week, how many customers would be lost in a year? What about the value of the sales lost? Would anyone afford to lose that much within a year?

2. IF YOUR WEBSITE ISN’T MOBILE RESPONSIVE YOU COULD BE EXCLUDED FROM SEARCH ENGINES

Last year Google announced, “As more people use mobile devices to access the internet, our algorithms have to adapt to these usage patterns.” The increased use of internet through mobile phones access means business have to adapt to the changing needs. Having a fully responsive website give business certainly give more audience.

In the same announcement, Google stated that: “Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact on our search results. “

You can actually visit OUR TOOL to check the mobile-friendliness of your site.

I have witnessed numerous companies launch their new websites. They are ecstatic but I have seen them fall short on something: the mobile responsive website isn’t included in their package. The good news is that every new website we develop at Adwestudio is built to be mobile responsive. Our pool of professional help many companies to make their website mobile friendly. In this information era, a mobile responsive website is no longer optional but a requirement.

Indeed, not only does this increase chances of ranking higher in search engines but its significantly reduces the bounce rate. Bounce rate is enabled by the metric rate which is a tool developed to track the percentage of people who have landed a website and leave without clicking to anywhere else on your website.

3. IF YOU DON’T HAVE UP TO DATE SECURITY YOUR WEBSITE COULD BE AT RISK

As the world, we have witnessed technological revolutionary. New programmes and software are developed every other day. It is possible to shop without queuing; control digital gadgets virtually and have real-time responses from websites. Amazing things are now possible courtesy to technological advancement. But have it escaped you the dangers posed by this technology?

This can never be illustrated better than to imagine someone having control of your car breaks. Then, this must prick your conscious to always double check what they could do to your website. Hacking is commonly performed by automated scripts written to scour the Internet in an attempt to exploit known website security issues in software. Having up to date website security minimises the risk of your website being compromised.

4. IF YOU DON’T HAVE UP-TO-DATE CONTENT ON YOUR WEBSITE CLIENTS MIGHT NOT STICK AROUND TO READ MORE

I recently stumbled on a website that the last update was the last 5 years ago. 5 years ago? That sounds unthinkable but it is true. I pondered if it was still active and if the business was still running. For 5 seconds, I was lost in thoughts before I clicked off and found one up to date.

With so many websites on the internet, the market is competitive and there’ is so much information to choose from. This offers many advantages to the users but demands the owner of website to stay up-to-date. Content updates let your customers know that you’re busy, active and most importantly, still in business!

There are so many benefits that accrue to an up-to-date website. A well-updated website attracts more links. This means if you write good content, the community of users will share the link on social media or their own blogs. Eventually, this creates more link to your website. More inbound links equal more traffic and that’s great for the business!

Another good reason to update your content ties in with our next reason.

5. IF YOUR WEBSITE IS STRUGGLING TO APPEAR IN SEARCH ENGINES YOU NEED TO THINK ABOUT UPDATING WEBSITES SEO

If you rarely improve on the content in the website, one sure thing is that the search engine ranking falls down. The search engine are optimised to recent content as more relevant to web users. Your content might be pieces of diamond, but if they lay static on a website for 5 years, then the search engine crawlers might not detect it as relevant anymore.

6. YOU CAN’T EASILY MAKE CONTENT UPDATES

Content management systems (CMS) has made headways and made it easy for non-technical users to add, edit and manage a website. There is no excuse for the business not to employ one and easily manage the content without the use of code. For reasons well known to website users, keeping your content relevant is paramount and with evolution of CMS, one should be able to edit without necessary hiring skills from bug web developer. If you cannot easily make updates, it’s high time you get a new one.

Things does not sound so bad though when you have a site on a CMS; you’re always in control. If you want to update the content to support a specific campaign, it super-easy! Re-developing your website in CMS is a shrewd business decision and really energises your marketing team.

7. YOUR WEBSITE IN FLASH

If your site is still running in Flash, you might not like this, but this means it has been outdated for the past 5+ years. The flash is not supported by virtually all software platform including iPhone, iPad and search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. To further discredit it, the user have to install a plugin (to have the latest version) which is really annoying every time they are prompted to update. Moreover, it is difficult to create, use and maintain.

For the animation lovers, they do not have to look further as the HTML5 solves it all. Website developers can easily use this platform to create interactive, animated features and the best part is the HTML5 can be supported across all browsers and smartphones.

Results from CEI survey indicated that at least 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a better experience which means the more attractive a site is to use can translate into more revenue for the business.

8. YOUR SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS ARE LOW

Search engine algorithms have broken new grounds over the years. If your organic search engine ranks dismally low, this could be symptoms that your website needs an update. Some year back, all that mattered is to have as many keywords for SEO but thanks to Google, today having original, high-quality content on your site makes it popular. Just a reminder, if the content on your website does not conform to the current SEO or it’s interred within flash elements or images, it may be time for an update.

According to research done by Search Engine Journal, 93% of online experiences starts with a search engine. Developing your site with SEO in mind will ensure that potential customers can find you online.

9. IF YOUR WEBSITE IS SLOW

Online consumers hate slow websites. According to KISSmetrics, 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less, and 40% of people will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load!

In case your corporate website is this slow, the statistics should be awake up call. It doesn’t only annoy your customers (causing them to look for alternatives websites) but also hurts the search engine ranking. Website developers are easily available these days, so if yours is low, its big time for re-design.

Having a fast-loading website will not only ensure that your customers stick around, but also that they’ll have a great experience on your site!

10. IT JUST LOOKS OUTDATED AND YOU’RE EMBARRASSED TO GIVE OUT YOUR URL

Websites have revolutionised. Today, it’s all about user interface and clean, elegant design. You should not find sleep if your site is not conforming to latest trends.

To attest to this fact, research done by ResearchGate showed that 94% of people say that websites with good designs are more trustworthy. It’s important that your customers and potential customers trust you, and a strong re-design can help make that happen.

For any of the reasons mentioned above, or maybe for some reason I didn’t mention, if you’re embarrassed to give your URL out, it’s definitely time for a website update!

Your website is an investment for the future success of your business, and it’s important to have that sense in mind. Having a strong online presence is no longer optional. In addition, your website can be the vehicle that leads to the Promised Land of better awareness, more leads and ultimately more happy customers.